EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the release of her Netflix rom-com Voicemails for Isabelle, produced by Sony Pictures, Leah McKendrick has landed a major new project with the studio: a biopic on global country-pop star Shania Twain, which she’ll direct from her own original script.
Plot details for the film, titled Shania, are being kept under wraps. We hear that McKendrick’s past work as a pop singer-songwriter was instrumental in landing her the gig.
Twain will produce alongside Amie Karp. Jessica Welch penned a previous script on Twain for the studio. The project is just the latest major music biopic for Sony, which released Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody through TriStar in December 2022 and is behind Sam Mendes’ upcoming set of interconnected films on the Beatles.
A five-time Grammy Award winner, Twain has since the ’80s helped redefine country music for a global audience, paving the way for the genre-blending crossover sound shaping country and pop today. Her era-defining catalog includes timeless hits such as “Any Man of Mine,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” “You’re Still the One,” and “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”
With more than 100 million albums sold worldwide, Twain remains the top-selling female country-pop artist of all time. She also made history as the first artist ever to release three consecutive Diamond-certified albums.
Twain’s seventh studio album, Little Miss Twain, which is said to mark the most personal work of her career, is slated for release on July 24. She is repped by Scott Rodger and Leila Hebden at Maverick, CAA, and Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks.
McKendrick is a filmmaker who broke out with Scrambled, an egg-freezing dramedy that premiered to critical acclaim at SXSW before being released theatrically by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions in 2024. More recently, she got behind the camera as writer and director of Voicemails for Isabelle, the aforementioned rom-com for Netflix starring Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson, where she plays a supporting lead. Produced by Sony Pictures and Escape Artists, the film is slated for release on June 19.
McKendrick is repped by UTA, Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment, and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
